Why I Love Being A Dad
My youngest son, Joshua, and I like playing pranks on each other. One memorable evening after a grueling twenty hours of flights and stopovers from Europe, I arrived home exhausted.
The house was dark and silent. Not wanting to wake everyone, I quietly carried my bags up the stairway. Unbeknownst to me, my twelve year old son had crept out of his room to surprise me.
What made it so scary was I arrived past midnight. Joshua crouched behind a large wooden cabinet in the dimly lit hallway leading to my bedroom. There was nowhere to turn. Worst of all was that he was completely wrapped in along dark brown Obi-Wan Kenobi hooded costume his older brother used in a high school student council publicity stunt.
Near Heart Attack
As the child jumped right in front of me, you can imagine the heart attack he nearly caused me! Such are the games we play on each other. Truth be told, I love Joshua for it. But from that point on he and I have had a kind of "prank feud.-
Sometime later while browsing in a novelty shop in Singapore, I found a rubber lizard that resembled the very same species we have in Manila. Without hesitation I bought the thing knowing how I would exact vengeance on Joshua.
A few says after I returned home, I positioned the creepy yellowish lizard inside Joshua's laptop and eagerly waited for him to come home from school. When Joshua arrived and entered his room, I stood by his doorway listening.
My Revenge
I was hoping he would scream, but he didn't. He did get a momentary shock until he realized who was responsible when he heard him snickering behind him. Gauging from his stunned expression, I could tell I scored big that day.
I made sure I took the lizard back just in case he tried the same trick on me and put the thing on my dinner plate! Knowing Joshua, I figured it was just a matter of time before he'd think of a creative comeback. But what he did next was totally unexpected.
His Revenge
While studying to prepare for a sermon, I opened my Strong's Concordance to check on a word, and there in between the pages was the lizard. No, I didn't scream, but I did let out an embarrassing yelp.
Just when I was about to pick up the lizard and put it back in my table drawer where I hid it, I noticed it was slightly larger than my rubber version. When I touched its stiff body and looked at its glazed eyes, I realized it wasn't a rubber lizard but a real, dead one! Much colder too!
I had been keeping a rubber mouse, waiting for just the right time to prank Joshua with it, but after the dead lizard I decided to call it quits lest I end up with a genuine mouse inside my shoe. But who knows how long the truce will last. I still have the rubber mouse.
I just love being a Dad!
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